International Students and Contract Cheating By James Reed

     Here is a story that one will probably not find at the American Renaissance site (“Asians are so much smarter than us”) ideology. University  cheating by the sacred international students is at epidemic levels, and has been for some time. So, the government, scared that there could be an erosion of the ultra-sacred, immaculate international student money, is taking action against those marketing student essays and assignments, for it has been estimated that over half on international students cheat by various forms of plagiarism:
  https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/05/half-international-students-accused-plagiarism/

“LINTON BESSER: At Sydney University, international students now make up a quarter of all enrolments. At other universities like RMIT in Melbourne, they’re almost 50 per cent of the cohort. With thousands of students often struggling with English, the pressure to pass is helping to fuel a black market… ZENA O’CONNOR: I’m, I’m staggered by the increase in plagiarism. Ah, to start with: in my experience, it was a very small proportion – you know, maybe two, three, four per cent. I would peg it now at being much, much higher: well over 50 per cent. LINTON BESSER: The academics who have spoken out tonight are not alone in their concerns. In our research for this program, we spoke with scores of academics around Australia. The vast majority had witnessed or personally experienced the pressure to ignore plagiarism and to pass weak students. Multiple other reports have similarly documented widespread cheating by international students across Australia’s universities. For example, in 2014, Chinese students were embroiled in a large-scale ghost-writing scandal, facilitated by universities welcoming international students who whistleblowing academics labelled “functionally illiterate”. In 2015, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) demanded universities curb cheating by international students after 70 students from the universities of Newcastle and Sydney, and several other major universities, were caught up in a cheating racket. An ABC investigation last year reported that “English language standards are often too low or can be sidestepped via loopholes, and that students are often put in stressful classroom situations that can lead to cheating”. In January, international student associations called for greater regulation of overseas migration agents amid widespread cheating on English tests to gain access to Australian universities. And following last week’s Four Corners expose, domestic students at Murdoch University claimed that “some international students were trying to circumvent the language gap by plagiarising their assignments or contracting outside sources for help”.”

     This problem is going to be dealt with by the usual method of censoring the net, to block cheating sites, as well as over-the top punishments, that smack of social neurosis:
  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/07/university-cheaters-would-face-two-years-jail-or-big-fines-under-coalition-plan
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-09/university-cheating-crackdown-could-mean-fines-for-family/11289742

“Parents or friends who proofread and make minor changes to students' assignments could find themselves caught up by a new law cracking down on academic cheating, universities have warned.
Key points:

•    Contract cheating — paying to have an assignment or exam done by someone else — is on the rise in Australian universities
•    Proposed legislation to tackle it could inadvertently mean a friend of family member suggesting minor changes to work is breaking the law
•    Education Minister Dan Tehan wants the legislation introduced to Parliament this year

The Federal Government has drafted legislation making it an offence to provide or advertise so-called "contract cheating" services, including websites offering to complete assignments or sit exams in exchange for a fee.
People found guilty under the proposed law could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to $210,000. Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said while the bill was needed to send a "powerful signal" to contract cheating providers, some of its wording was too broad. "There's a phrase [in the bill] describing prohibiting the provision of "any part of a piece of work or assignment" that a student's required to complete," Ms Jackson said. "We're concerned that that might mean that if you were a mum or a dad at home proofreading your kid's essay, you say 'those three sentences don't work very well, how about you use this different sentence or this different construction or these different words?', that that kind of assistance might be captured. "I don't think anyone wants that to be the case so we'd just like some of the language to have a little more attention before … they get to the very final version of the draft." Associate Professor Phillip Dawson from Deakin University's Centre For Research In Assessment And Digital Learning agreed the phrasing was too vague. "If I say 'hey it would be great if you reworded that sentence to be this other way', is that providing cheating services?" he said. "If a student passes a note to another student in an exam or an older sibling offers to do the stats for their younger sibling's assignment, that shouldn't be a crime. That should be something that universities' existing academic integrity procedures should deal with."

Tehan wants to 'protect investment' in universities
In a statement, Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said contract cheating undermined the integrity of Australia's higher education system and needed to be stamped out.”

  https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/07/international-students-drive-alarming-rise-cheating-australian-univ
  https://blog.une.edu.au/pulsenews/2018/06/28/contract-cheating-in-australian-universities-findings-from-a-nation-wide-survey-of-students-and-staff/
  https://www.smh.com.au/education/yingying-dou-the-mastermind-behind-the-university-essay-writing-machine-20141111-11kk50.html

     My guess here is that the only people who will ultimately be hit by the fines and gaol will be struggling Australian students and parents. The rich international students will find local producers to do essays and assignments, for the money is simply to good to put down. The universities have become monster entities, to my mind like Mordor, generating this and other social problems, and they must be closed down forever, and the entire higher education concept rethought. I long for these evil, politically correct, globalist institutions to collapse. And, as readers will see in my next article, this could easily happen given their financial dependence upon China.